Playful Abstract Painting: Effortless Beginner’s Guide to Acrylic Painting

1. Welcome to another wonderful class : One welcome to another wonderful acrylic abstract painting class. If you have been struggling with having clean colors in your painting, this is the class for you. You will learn the basics of color harmony, while at the same time creating some beautiful nuances and a wonderful painting. You will understand how to avoid muddy colors while at the same time developing a complex composition. Hi, my name is George, and I've been a professional artist for over ten years. Six years ago, I've fallen in love with teaching, both online and in person classes. Working with both adults and children, I've developed a very interesting way of teaching that focuses on making beautiful projects while having a lot of fun and learning all along the way. If you have never painted before, then this is the class for you. It takes you from zero to hero, understanding the basics of color mixing, brush handling, and also how to have fun while painting. If that sounds interesting to you, grab your brushes, your acrylics, and your canvas, and let's start this class. 2. Materials : One, welcome to another beautiful painting class. In this class, you will need a canvas that is 40 by 30 centimeters, or you can do it on a square or any kind of canvas you have, this design works on any canvas. You will need some brushes, a big flat brush, and also a round small. And it's quite small and beautiful. You will also need some acrylic paint. This is Amsterdam acrylic paint, titanium white. So brown, also known as burnt umber, some red, called carmine red, and this is Azo yellow Medium. You can use lemon yellow snow problem. And this is brilliant blue. You can also use ultramarine if you don't have these specific colors. All you need is red, a yellow, a blue, a brown, and a white. And adjust the colors. If you have an ultramarine blue, you can add a bit of yellow and white to make it a bit more towards a brilliant blue. You will also need a plate to mix your colors as well as some napkins. And that's all you need for this course. 3. Start small at first: Let's start by adding some blue to the mixing plate, right over here, and some white right next to it. Perfect. Let's take the big brush and take some blue and some white mixing in a beautiful color. If your blue is not looking like this, just add a bit of yellow into the ultramarine blue, and it will look quite the same, but it doesn't really matter. So the colors are not so specific. The painting will look nice, although a bit different if you add different colors. I suggest still keeping the colors close enough so that you get the beautiful color composition. Let's start over here on this corner, on the left side and make a beautiful square, filling it in, going a bit more towards the right, so we don't really make a square. Focus on the edge, and let's break this shape and make it less of a square even more by adding this mountain over here. Once you've done that, you can pick some blue, just blue. Even if it's ultramarine blue, that doesn't really matter. And now let's go and add some blue over here to change and add color variety. Now, this is an interesting way of adding variety. You just change a bit the color, and then the variety just comes to you for free. Now, let's do the same and add some white over on this side of the plate, mixing it thoroughly. So you can add some whit version of this color. Notice how this is just a square, almost a rectangle, and then a line next to it, and then here we're going to do some patches. We can also go and break some of those lines as well. Perfect. Now, let's clean the brush. We've thoroughly cleaned the brush, and now let's add some red to the palette. Perfect. Once you've added some red to the palette with this almost entirely clean brush, you can take some blue and some red, mix it all together. Maybe not that much red. Let's add in another place some blue and make a darker blue and start adding it over this color going towards these beautiful colors. Letting the brush dictate a bit of the textures, just move it around, swiggle it. And then when you feel comfortable, you can start to add some more shapes towards the right. Focusing on that edge. If you see some white dots, you can always just add some paint over them. Focusing on the right corner and the edge. So we paint a bit of the edge as well. Now going even darker with the reds, going to make a beautiful purple color. And with this color, we're going to go up from here into the middle of the canvas, just to about the middle, focusing on cleaning the brush on the edge. Okay. Notice how this color is not really as perfect as this edge. So let's add a bit more red and a bit more blue into the color so that you can really focus on that edge. Okay? Just slowly move your brush, so it creates a sharper edge, and you can go into this blue, creating a sharper edge this way. Okay? And going a bit higher. Perfect. Now, let's take some red and go over on this side, even though you have a bit of a darker tone in the brush, you can still make a bit of color variety right on the edge and on this newly found color, getting rid of some white spots. So let the painting dictate where you put this color, this new color. Where you see some white spots in the color you just added, or even in some areas like this one, for instance, right over here. Just making small changes and adding that edge, that crisp edge onto the color. That's all for this step. And the next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. You can just jump into the next step. Let's clean the brush first. Okay. 4. Keep clean color: This next step, we need to find a beautiful space to add some red and some white to make a wonderful pink. Now, with this color, you have to be a bit more careful not to go into the blue. So even if you touch the blue, it's fine as long as you don't get into it too much. You can get into the purples because the purples have a bit of red. So let's first make the shape by adding just a contour. Notice how this is a straight line like this, then wavy close to the shape, and then it goes like this. And then you can fill it in with the color. Even if you have some blue leftover in the color, that's fine. Just fill it in, press down hard in order to fill in the color. Notice how it's doing a color shift. So let's take a bit more of this pink, so we bring it back. Bring it back and just fill it in. Focus on the edge, so it's very crisp and nice. Okay. I picked up some debris, some color. Let's mix it again. Let's add some white into it. Don't worry if you cannot really do the same color twice. That's really not a problem. Notice how this is much more light. But even if it was so light, and I decided to put it over, I would just go over the color once again and mix it in onto the canvas itself. So let's move it around and create that edge. Notice how we are purposely avoiding going into the purple right now, just so you can have a cleaner color, we are avoiding that area. So let's go into the very close to the purple. Notice how it blends a bit, but if you are careful, you don't pick so much of the color. Let's flip the brush and continue by taking some more color. If you don't have it, you can re it. Super simple, just red and white. Even though it's changed a bit, it doesn't really matter because you can go over the shape once again to make it a bit more flat. And let's finish this. Let's focus on the white spots. Okay. Notice how this edge is quite straight and quite uninteresting. And once you finish making the edges quite sharp, You can start to focus in on going a bit into the purple in some areas. Just going and adding a bit of a transition. And then you can also do something else, which is clean the brush. And after you've cleaned the brush, you can start to blend a bit more just a bit onto the edge. I dropped a fuzzy hair from the dog. Okay. And then you can add some of this color into the purple just in some areas right in the middle. Perfect. For the next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. 5. Smaller shapes adding complexity : We're going to go and clean the brush a bit thoroughly and go into some blue. We can mix it over this blue over here. Let's add some red to it to make it a more ultramarine blue. Perfect. Now let's go over here and add another shape. Let's have some more color. Let's make some more color. So we can make a beautiful and vibrant shape. And going and making a shape right next to this because it has a bit of red, we can go inside of it nicely. Now let's go and divide it and go towards the blue this way. Let's make them merge perfectly. And over here, let's change this shape to make it more complicated. Now, let's take some blue. Mix it in with the color you have on the brush, and you can start to go over on this side and over on this side. And then the purpose of this doing things this way and remaking the colors is if you want to add some more blue over the purple, you can do that to create more variety of color and depth. Okay. And we can start to do something very, very nice, like right here where these two colors meet. Let's do a bit of a sliver. Even if you don't have this shape, you can go over and create it by going over the pink or the purple. Notice how if you take some more blue, you can start to go in between the colors, even if they are wet. Okay. That's nice. And we're going to do the same right over here, creating a bit of color from here and there, just mixing it together. For the next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. You don't even need to clean the brush. 6. Turquoise green: This next step, let's take some white, even though it has some blue and some red into it, that's not really affecting the color and mix it over the green that you already have. If you don't have it, let's recreate it by adding some blue over on this side and some yellow. And we're going to make a beautiful green color. Just a nice and beautiful, vibrant green color. Mix it very well because the brush has some blue leftover. So press hard mix it very well because you're going to have to create a big nice shape right over here. Let's first draw it going this way, and then curving a bit, and then let the brush dance, and then we can go up and right next to this. And then you can take the color and fill it in. Notice how there is a bit of blue into the brush that doesn't really matter as long as you go over and mix it a bit onto the canvas. Let's take some more color. And continue right over here. You can be a bit more relaxed because this is very close in terms of color change. So you can be very un attentive, just do it a bit nice just so you have a bit of a transition there. And then right over here, you have to be a bit more careful. If you take a lot of thick paint, you can be a bit more sloppy with the brush handling. Notice how we are going right into the blue and over it. So they overlap a bit. So overlapping over colors that are super opposite, like pink and green. If you have a bit of thickness and the paint that you have there is a bit drier, you can go a bit over it, and nothing will happen. So this is it's a rule of painting, and it's called thick over thin. Let's add a bit more white into this color and a bit of yellow. Okay. Just to add some color variety inside of this shape. Notice how it's a bit more light, on the left hand side and in the middle, just mix it a bit. And once you've done that, you can go ahead and add some of this color right over here, creating a beautiful shape that points towards the other one. It's like a triangle, but a bit more complex. You don't really have to make the shapes like, really the same. They can be your own little shapes. But let's try to get them as precise as possible. Okay. For the next step, you don't really need to clean the brush or clean the plate or you don't need to wait for the painted dry. 7. Big emerald green : This next step, you will add some yellow over the green. If you don't have it, let's recreate it, but. It's also better if you mix it over and mix it thoroughly. Once you've done that, we need to actually add some white. We need to actually add some white to the mixing plate, just over here on this corner of a round plate. And let's mix it over. We need quite a bit of di color. That's why you added some white over there. So mix it thoroughly, press hard, so the brush mixes everything that it has in the bristles. Notice how it's much more different. It's much more light. And you can go a bit into the green. Let's start drawing exactly where this color will be. So it's going to be until here, and then it's going to go right over there and divide the canvas kind of in half. Like this, and then over here entirely. So you can start to put it onto the let's take some more color and start putting it. Doesn't matter if your brush when you press on it, it has some blue and it mixes the color. That's fine. It just adds some color variety. Just press hard, so you squeeze all of that color and do it quite fast because you don't need to be super attentive. You just need to fill in this corner, and then let's take some more of this color. Carefully, so we don't really Notice how, even though I said that we need a lot of color, I ran out of color. So let's recreate it by adding yellow over this color already existing. Let's add a bit of blue. That's a bit too much. Well, not really. And then we need the secret ingredient. Notice how that's well, it's a beautiful color. Let's actually add it. But not right now because you probably had enough color, so let's mix it over, add some more white to this color, mix it thoroughly, pressing it down. So you get a flat, beautiful color. Okay. And it's a bit more yellow, so we need a bit of blue. Blue. Let's add more blue into it. Mx it thoroughly, once again, pressing hard, and let's see, close enough. So you don't really need to be as careful because now you can do a trick, which is to just blend it in to the other color just over very fast and blending the colors in to each other. Now going in very close to this green, you don't need to be super careful because you can go into the green since these colors are very, very close. Notice how it's creating a beautiful edge right over here. You don't need to recreate it. I'm actually going to take it away by going a bit more into the green. C. And let's take some more color and be careful of the texture that the brush creates because we are not adding any water to this paint. It will start to create some wonderful textures, some thickness. Okay. And going on this side, here, we have to be a bit careful, but the blue, I think is almost dry, and it doesn't really matter because it's not like something like pink or red, so we can really go in and go over the other paints. If your colors are a bit transparent, you should use a bit more thickness, a bit more paste, and if they are still transparent, then you should also consider buying Amsterdam Acrylic paints. I'm not sponsored, but they are very good quality for the price. These big jugs of paint are very, very good, and you can do a lot of things with just four colors. Five. White is not a color, so it's still four. Okay. And now for the next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. All you need to do is you don't even need to let the brush and clean it. You're just going to add some yellows over here on this side. 8. Small details for big results: Okay. For this next step, let's take some yellow and find another space where we can mix this yellow. It created a green, a deeper green. We're going to use this first, and then we're going to find another spot or somewhere else where we can add the yellow so we can take some yellow. So let's go with this green, this very light green. It's a bit more saturated in this one. It has less white. So it's a sap, beautiful green. If your greens don't look like that, doesn't matter. You can really put any colors that are different, as long as it's a green, and it's close to these colors, you can add it no problem. Let's add it over here as well to create some contrast. And actually, let's talk a bit about contrast. So this is a very light color. To create contrast, we need to add it somewhere where it's dark, like over here over this green, or over here. Notice how it stands out quite a bit. And of course, we can also add it right over here to create a bit more contrast. Another place where you can add it is right in between the purple and the pink. By now, they should be almost dry and also notice how much color there is into the brush. So if you do a small shape over here, and then go into the blues, that's going to be perfect. Okay, quite pointy, so let's round it out a bit, so it doesn't stick so much. Notice how there are some white points over on this turquoise, so let's add some of that color over there as well. And now we can go over into the green this big area, since you've done it so fast, you might have created and left some white spots. I know I did. So this edge needs to be a bit more precise. And let's focus and see if we can find some white spots onto the turquoises in the blues. We can add this right over here and right over here. Let the painting dictate where you put the green. Notice how there is some white over there. This creates a lot of variety and also a lot of interesting play between colors. And if you also find some textures that you don't like, like, for instance, over here, Oh, no, I picked up some blue, but that's fine. Let's create a bit of a shape and calm down that texture. Notice how it created a beautiful shape over here of this color over the green. And now you can also create a smaller one thinking of big medium, small. You've unconsciously understood what big medium and small is by nature. This is a big shape. This is a medium shape, and these are small shapes. So you've instantly, without even thinking, just following the course, you've focused on making big medium and now a small shape right over here. And you've also understood how to create color variety by just shifting the color a little bit and creating these interesting textures. You've also learned a lot about how to how to use the brush in order to create very crisp edges and how to place colors right next to each other, even if they are not friends. They are not analogous friends. Now, for the next step, you will need some yellow. We're going to not let the painting dry. We just clean the brush because it had too much green and we want to go into the yellows. Let's squeeze the paint out and go into the next step. 9. Yellow tones: This next step, we don't actually have a space to mix the colors, so we can do something more interesting, which is to add some yellow over on this side, and start to spread it around and it can be a bit loose around the greens. No problem. Just mix it around. Even though it's too much, if it's too much, you can always pick it up. So let's mix it. And going right next to the edge. And you might think that this yellow is way too intense, and plus it's from the tube, so it looks organic. Don't worry about that. We have a trick for that as well. Notice how there is a lot of paste. Let's take it and add it into the middle where there is white over here. Be careful not to touch the greens and the blues yet because we want to finish the middles first. So get as close as possible to the other colors and then start working on the edge. Right next to this screen. You can go a bit into the green to make the edge a bit more transparent. Notice how yellow is acting differently than the other colors. That's because yellow it's quite a transparent color. So instead of blending and making a nice crisp edge, we have to be a bit more careful. And go right next to the edge. Okay. Let's pick some of that color and put it on the plate. Let's pick some of it out and take it on the plate by scraping the plate like this. And then let's smooth it out. Smooth it out. Let's take some of this color from over here and add it right next to the greens. Okay, can mix it very well and nice so that it's beautiful. If you don't feel comfortable using the big brush, you can use the small brush for this area over here. Just going very close and filling in that color. If we did this painting in another order, it would be a lot more easy if we added the yellows first and then went from there, but planning hindsight is 2020, being very careful not to touch and go over the purple. That's the most important thing because over the green that's going to create a beautiful edge, but over the purple, I can show you if you want. Well, if you ask nicely, I will provide. Notice how it it really shows its transparency. So be careful not to go into the purple and over dark colors. You can go into the greens and into the turquoise, over the blue and the purple. You shouldn't go even if they're dry. Perfect. Now, let's take some more color from here. While mixing this color, you can also add it over on this side by mixing it over top, even though it's wet, and let's create a smaller shape. So we have a big shape, a big shape over here, a smaller shape over here, and another one over here, that's We need another smaller one right next to it. And it feels like if we blend some of this green over the color, it will look better. So let's do that to create a bit more color variety. I can also go right next to the edge and create some of this color into the turquoise, as well as the green right over here. Perfect. In the next step, you don't need to clean the brush. All you need to do is well, let's pick this up first. Okay Let's brush it over with our finger. For the next step, you don't need to let the painting dry. All you're going to do is create some orange. 10. Variety of color: You're going to create some orange by adding just a bit of red onto the corner of the brush and mixing it into a place where you have a spot. You don't need yellow because you have yellow already on the beautiful Canvas. Let's create a beautiful orange color over on this corner and notice how you have to mix it quite well over the yellow so that it creates this interesting color. Okay. And over here, let's add some. Let's take some more red that is already mixed on the plate and mix it over. And with this color, you can go over the areas. You've added the orange and create even more interesting shapes. You can go into the yellow. So not only do you mix it over quite nicely. If it's not wet, that's fine, it's going to create a deeper red. So let's go over on this corner, and let's break some of these shapes and combine the colors together. Okay. Perfect. For the next step, you will need to clean up the brush. We're going to not use this brush anymore. All you need to do is clean up the small brush as well. If you ended up using it like I did for the colors. 11. Darker blue lines: For the step, you will need some blue and mix it right over here where you have some dried paint. And with this color, we can go in between and make some beautiful lines, play around, even if the colors are wet, just in between some turquoise and some green, you can also go right next to the yellow, even if you pick up some of that yellow, just creating some beautiful lines. And this will create a lot of, like, interesting variety and also shapes because we've done big shapes, blobs of paint. Now, these lines will seem like they add so much to the painting. You don't have to make and follow all of these shapes. You can go inside, like, for instance, over here. You can go inside. And you might notice that the color is changing because it's picking up some of that yellow and super fine. Doesn't really matter. You can also add some thickness to the line to make it more interesting. And let's go over on this side to continue. Don't go overboard with the lines, find some areas where you can add them. And usually at the intersection and over the colors that already contain that color, like green or turquoise, You can also go and create a lot of contrast by going over this purple right over here. Even though I just said that you should only go on that area. This will teach you a bit of something. Notice how it's very hard to make a very defined edge. You have to go a lot of times over the color in order to create a sharper edge, and even then, it's not perfectly sharp. So you have to keep that in mind. Okay. You can also go over here. And create some textures and some lines, picking up some more of that green that you just laid down. Okay. Once you've done that, you can take some more blue and a bit of red, a bit more to have a purple Now, with this purple, you can do the same, but this time, it will seem a bit more dark. You can even go over the lines you've already created to give them a bit of depth. Notice how it's creating a bit of a color change over there. And let's go over on this side and create a small one, and right over here, continuing it. And maybe this is too much of a curve, so we need to break it down a bit. And over on this beautiful side, there are some white spots. You can also think of it as a color that you can use over the blues and the purples where you have white spots. Notice how it's exactly this color. It makes nothing, but take away that wonderful white. There is a bit of white over here, so we can go with a line from the inside. And now let's go over on this side and try to fix those white spots and go into the yellow. Being very careful if there is a bit of a thick blob of yellow over there, it will change the color, but that's fine. Okay. Let's continue 12. Finishing touches: This time, you're going to add some white to the color. Just white, take some white, and add it to this color. Okay. It will seem a bit gray, but that's fine because it has a bit of red into it and a bit of green and a bit of blue. It's just a lighter blue. And with this color, you can continue to add some lines. Notice how the lines are much more intense and much more concentrated in the middle. That's just because you want the viewer to have just a focal point where to watch what you've did. Okay. Let's go over here and add. Notice how this color really stands out, and it's quite beautiful once you add some lines. And if you feel like a line is out of place, if you go with this light color over it, just like over here, can start to make it more interesting just because it has a bit more depth and play. Like right over here. And let's continue to add this color over on this side. And over on this screen, we can create a shape actually. That's another thing that you can do right now with the small brush. You can create smaller shapes, notice how you can create a shape, and you can create a lot of contrast because the painting is almost dry completely, so you can add a shape, notice how it is opaque, so it's not transparent because it's blue. And also, because the pink is dry, you can now paint a bit over it, even though some areas are still wet. Okay. And over here, there is some white spots. So let the painting dictate where to put these colors. You can go over and cut some of that green over on this side. And let's make a bigger shape right over here. And we can go even more white. Let's go even more white and add some blue into it, so we bring up some of that vibrancy. Okay. And with this color, let's add some more variety around the middle. I'm going to focus on adding contrast by going over dark areas. Notice how I picked some of that green up, but that's fine. We can mix it thoroughly and redo the line and the shape over here. Maybe make it a bit bigger and thicker. Perfect. And let's add this color at the top over here as well, and maybe over next to this yellow line, and also over here. This will just make these, these yellows not be at the forefront because we are going over them a bit because there is a lot of paint in this brush. So you can make that yellow go into the background because the edge, and you are overlapping the colors. Notice how there is a little bit of a problem over here because we've went over that line. So what we can do is go over the line even more and create a shape over here so we can cover it. Fixing mistakes as we go. So it doesn't really matter. If you did a mistake, you can fix it. You can start to ask yourselves the right question, which is, how can I change? What don't I like about this shape? Well, I like it, so let's not change anything. I don't like this area over here. It's undefined, and it has a lot of textures. So in order to take away some of that texture, just clean up the brush and take it away or mix it over, it's the same thing. You don't need to take it away because there isn't so much. You just need to not add by having a lot in the brush. But we are going to make the edge of this shape just a bit more crisp. Okay. It's more defined now. So we worked on that area, and it's more defined. Now, let's take some more color and do another shape over here. Beautiful. Focusing on that edge, making it a bit crispy. And that's all you need for this painting. You've finished it. If you feel like you need to change something, just let it dry, or you can paint over and think about analogous colors. If it's analogous colors, then you are allowed to put that color over there. So, for instance, even this color is quite close to this green. Blue and green are very close together, so they are playing well with each other. So we can add it over, even though it's not completely dry, I will create a nice effect. Maybe not make it so evident. Let's blend it over. Notice how they are playing quite well. So you've learned about colors. And even if you changed from orange to purple to blue to green. You've slowly went over there by creating intermediary colors. Remember how you've created this blue, and then you've created a darker blue and then a lighter blue, and then even darker blue, by adding red, and then a purple, and then you've made a pink. This pink should have been over here somewhere as well. So you can let the painting dry and add it over the the green may be over here, just as a small point. Thank you for watching. I hope you had a great time. I know I did. And if you are gracious enough, please leave a review, so other people will know that this course is for them as well.